The Tablet as Sustainable Learning Technology

The iPad 2 and Motorola Xoom tablets were released in the past couple of weeks, both of which will likely bring new opportunities for mobile learning. What’s the Story ebook on iPad and iPhone, originally uploaded by shiftstigma. The first time I saw an iPad I thought “what’s the difference between that and my iPod [...]

Sustainability and Mobile Technology

Blackboard Mobile Learn, originally uploaded by jrhode. According to the New Media Consortium’s annual Horizon Report, mobile learning continues to be one of the fastest growing emerging technologies for teaching and learning. Smartphones and tablets are becoming the preferred method for accessing the Internet. You may find the majority of your students already have smartphones [...]

How’re ya holdin up?

We define “sustainable” as that which has the capacity to endure. In other words, it holds up over time – like this bronze statue of Atlas I found on Flickr. Bronze has been around since – well, the bronze age – and continues to be the medium of choice by sculptors wishing to have their [...]

What do you bring to the Table?

  Making the dip, originally uploaded by MonkeyEggplant. Found this pic on Flickr of a someone’s special dip they brought to a potluck. Open Content is kinda like a potluck. You can always count on some people to bring chips to the potluck – they’re fast, cheap, and easy. They don’t require much effort so [...]

“Enhanced Physical Reality”

…is how Ubimark describes its application. The gist of the technology is a 2-dimensional graphic is printed on a page (textbook, map, brochure, etc.). The user “scans” the graphic by taking a pic with their iPhone camera. The graphic is recognized as an URL by the iPhone App and displays the related link in the [...]

Google Voice Transcription

I finally got Google Voice. I had put in a request several months ago, but hadn’t heard back. While attending a recent conference someone was telling me how much they liked it (though it  came across as bragging at the time). I told them I was jealous and still impatiently waiting. They offered to send [...]

I need Flash on my iPod Touch

Steve Jobs, President of Apple – makers of the top-selling iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad – has stated they will not use Flash with their hand-held technology. Flash has become the de facto standard for delivering online media including video, games, and animation. Hulu uses Flash, Scribd uses Flash, TeacherTube, Slideshare, StudyMate and many other [...]

Extending the Virtual Classroom

The LMS of today is too confining a virtual learning environment. Such closed systems lock out all but those officially enrolled in the course. The emerging LMS needs to accommodate others in addition to students and faculty, allowing learners to benefit from interaction with a broader network and community of practice. Last semester, as part [...]

Texting Monk

The Texting Monk – Vientiane, Laos, originally uploaded by whl.travel. Anytime – Anywhere

Net-gen’rs, Digital Immigrants, and Geeks!

A small group of us on campus has been investigating alternatives for our next learning management system. We are considering four solutions: two proprietary and two open source systems. As I was reporting on our team’s progress the other day, we got into a discussion about student readiness. One of my colleagues said that he [...]